// Advanced technologies
A Kompogas plant in
Winterthur, Switzerland.
(Credit: HZI)
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“Council has to decide if they want to
have food waste [as part of these “new”
waste streams] as well. But again,
NSW has declared that food and green
waste have to be collected together
and other states have done the same.
However, just saying something should
be done does not mean it’s enforced.
In Europe, they say it but also regulate
it,” Stammbach said.
Or perhaps one way to push the
technology forward is to combine AD
sites with energy from waste plants.
“For example, you can use the biogas
and super heat the steam from the EfW
plant, which gives a higher efficiency –
you increase the efficiency of a thermal
plant by five to 10%, which is quite
attractive - and it lowers the investment
because you don’t need money for
further biogas upgrading. Plus having an
EfW plant allows you to have whatever
contamination you get from pretreatment to pass it on to a thermal plant
for burning. Or, alternatively, you use
some heat and electricity from the EfW
plant to run the AD plant and to optimise
CNG production from biogas.” Win-Win.
More work to be done
Despite the various options, the road
ahead is fraught with challenges. For
one, Stammbach said Australia has
not had the “full landfill discussion”.
Politicking in the last five years about
carbon and greenhouse gases has also
poisoned whatever little discussion the
country has had.
“Landfills today actually get benefits
from burning landfill gas or producing
electricity from landfill gas and this
is ok for historic landfills because the
waste has been put in. However, it is
greatly astonishing that this continues
to be the case, that today, for every
tonne of new fresh waste going to
landfill, they can actually benefit, while
at the same time, they’re net polluters
of greenhouse gas. If this is properly
discussed, it would show landfilling as
what it is and result in straight bans for
all un-treated waste going to landfill
as is the case in several countries in
Europe,” Stammbach said.
Large landfills also make operators a
substantial amount of money. The profit
margin in this space is higher than a
recycling facility. Doing more elsewhere,
for example EfW or composting, would
take away from the profit to be had if
simply landfilled. As such, “everyone
wants to delay that moment.”
“The big companies are hesitant to
push for EfW plants. All are cautious,
standing aside and trying to optimise
their landfills to make as much cash while
they still can. Therefore, the offering to
councils is very limited when it comes to
such plants,” Stammbach said.
“But in the long-term, I believe
sanity will prevail and agreements like
last year’s Paris agreement will actually
get implemented and that would
really change the energy and waste
sectors and turn it into a resource
iw
recovery sector.”
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AUGUST 2016 INSIDEWASTE
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